About a month ago, our farm was awarded the Beef Farm of Excellence (BFE) award from the New York Beef Producers association, at their annual meeting. This program is three years into its existence and was commissioned with the goal of distinguishing beef cattle farms throughout the empire state, that operated with higher standards. Any beef farm in the State has the opportunity to apply, and they are judged based on the standard criteria listed by the BFE committee. The standards relate to animal husbandry, environmental stewardship, record keeping and astatic road appeal. If judged and scored high enough (a minimum of 85%), the farm is awarded the distinction and gifted a sign, to proudly display. I’d like to dive a bit deeper into each of the areas in which we were measured and successfully obtained the stamp of approval.
The first quality standard is animal husbandry. Established by the NCBA (National Cattlemen’s Beef Association), through their check-off program; the beef council, is a program known as Beef Quality Assurance (BQA). I say all this; to point out, it is a nationally recognized and approved program in accordance with our industry group as well as the department of agriculture (USDA). To complete the BQA course you need to pass a written test, have a chute side training of administering medication, both displaying proper technique and dosage as well moving the cattle through the pen and chute in a low stress manner. Additionally, it is required to have our veterinarian sign a compliance agreement form, verifying that we follow these practices on our farm. This is designed, to convey confidence to consumers, that a BQA certified farm, is treating the livestock humanely and observing proper veterinarian techniques and observing the medications withdraw times, which is how long after administration that the animal can be harvested. I’d like to note, we do not administer any growth hormones and only use one vaccination to prevent pneumonia which is given in fall. We don’t use modified live vaccinations or MRNA. Our viewpoint is, if we allow the cows to exist the way they are divinely created, and kept clean, not in overcrowded pens, that the need for preventive vaccinations all but disappears. This being said, just like people, cattle do get sick. We have a chute and cattle handling barn with pens to isolate the sick animals. We don’t treat the whole herd, we treat the issue a cow has and keep them separate until they are healthy, what a novel thought! This being said, when we do have to help the cattle back to health in times that they have an issue, we want to make sure to utilize proper technique and animal handling, so we found value in taking this course. Our farm has been BQA certified for over a decade, and re-certification is required every three years, which we have maintained.
The BFE also requires the farm to incorporate environmental sustainability into its holistic production plan. This is an area that we are strongly passionate about. As stated, two blogs ago, we feel this is an ordained ministry from God to come along side him and be his hands of production, utilizing his natural systems set up at creation, to usher in an abundance of nutrient dense food for man to flourish on. We believe God’s creation is abundant and when we follow his plan, we can bring Him glory, which is more important than anything else. For the BFE, they want to know that we have a relationship with our Counties Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and that we have a conservation plan, mitigating potential negative effects the cattle can have on our eco-system and amplifying the positive ones. We have a good, longstanding relationship with the Schoharie County SWCD. We currently have a plan in place for creating forested buffers on our stream and enhancing some of our pastureland.
Next, we were evaluated on our record keeping. This is an area that dates back to adolescent post-thanksgiving meals with my grandfather, registering heifer calves. We are a registered black angus’ farm. This means, that each cow is registered with the American Angus Association in St. Joseph, MO. We can date back to each cow’s pedigree, for generations, some of our cows go all the way back to the 60’s when my grandfather bought his first registered pairs. We also have DNA data on some of our top performers, which is a metric called EPD standing for expected progeny difference. We use the EPD’s and pedigrees to match bulls to our cows. This is done both by the herd sire who naturally covers the cows during the breeding season, or via frozen semen which is administered by Mattea, who is a certified inseminator. In addition to the progeny records we maintain performance records too. This accounts for the calves’ birth weight, their weight when they wean from mama (typically 205 days old) and also at a year old and then yearly after. In our business we sell pounds. Whether it’s a pound of hamburger or 300 hanging lbs. of a side of beef, that is the metric in which we are paid. So, naturally, we want to know which of our cows are genetically gifted in the ability to gain weight easier (less feed) and faster. In the cattle business this is known as easy fleshing. The reason its valuable, is we use a pasture based system to grow the steers to butcher. We aren’t relying on heavy mixed diets or high grain inputs. All the cattle are in the same pasture and given either a pasture diet or a dry/fermented grass hay in the winter. We don’t specialize in the diet of the butcher steers outside of a few lbs. of grain (2/3 lbs. per day) at the last 4 months, to help marble out the beef and to calm them, making them easier to work and load when it’s time to harvest. This means, if we aren’t using feed to grow lbs., we need to rely on good pasture management and cattle that gain weight on their own and do it well. All this takes records to make effective decisions. Which cows wean the heaviest calves? Which hay fields are most productive, and which need to be bale grazed or have manure spread on more? What do the soil tests say? Which pasture lot is growing back to grazing stage on fewer days? Which lot allows the most or least number of grazing days per rotation? These are all things we consider, and track, and the evidence of that which we submitted for the award, satisfied the requirement.
Finaly, the visual appearance is considered. This is something that we have been working on for the last 4-5 years. Clearing out old overgrown fences, cleaning and sorting barns that had collected decades of stuff, updating landscaping, cutting down dead trees, painting the barns and fence, updating and old egg barn into a farm store. It has been a process for sure. Truth be told, when we heard about this program, that was the area I was most interested to be judged on. The appearance of our farm, especially since establishing the on-farm market for people to come and buy local meats and baked goods, is of up most importance. We want to provide positive representation and for the visual aesthetic of the farm to match the quality of our product. It truly was an honor to be dubbed worthy of the roadside appeal portion of this award, making all the work and money spent, validated by the acceptance. We hope that when folks drive by, they are happy to see the cattle grazing peacefully next to a quaint farmstead in the country.
We truly are humbled to receive the Beef Farm of Excellence. We put a lot of time and effort into providing the highest quality proteins that we can. There is a lot that has to be considered and taken care of to make that possible. To be listed among the farms in the state, operating at a higher standard is an honor that we are blessed to have received. We pray that we can continue to find ways to improve our production, in line with how God would want it done, helping to maintain His creation and in providing food for our community, so that He would be honored and our friends and family that enjoy the food, can do it knowing love and the and extreme care is infused into every bite.
John V